Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Microsoft Office Suite is ubiquitous and universal

Microsoft Office Suite is out of the windows into the wide
world. Microsoft Office Suite is (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) now available on not only Windows but
also on iPads, and Androids. It first started on Android tablets early this year
and a smart phone preview in May. This is similar to what is now available for
iPads and iPhones. If you want to use more mobile features or want to use the
desktop version you will be better of getting an annual subscription for Office
365.

This availability of Office on platforms other than Windows
makes it ubiquitous and may discourage other contenders who have tried hard to
break into this market. Although this should have come earlier, it is never too
late. This move also highlights Cloud as the future like Apple, Oracle and others. I also believe that subscription model will also discourage pirating of software.I have a monthly subscription for Office 365 but certain
features I wanted on Excel are not available such as Power Pivot. In order to
use Power Pivot I have to have the add-in which is not available for my
subscription.

comaddin.png

I am mostly using it for Word and a little less for
others.

Where is Google Docs going? What about Libre Office and other similar products?
Here is what Libre office advertised:

"LibreOffice is an office suite that will provide you with almost every office tool that you could possibly need. The difference between LibreOffice and some of the big boys though is that LibreOffice is completely free and open source. No longer do you have to spend hundreds of dollars just to own an office suite."

Well, LibreOffice has still few more items not on Office suite and it may still be attractive especially if you are the true believer in Open Source.